Matt Ross-Spang spent nearly a decade as the sound engineer at Sun Studio recording modern bands using vintage techniques pioneered by his idol, Sam Phillips. When producers asked him to remix an album full old Elvis songs, he jumped at the chance.
The two-disc album, Way Down in the Jungle Room, (Aug. 5 release date) comprises songs that were all recorded in Elvis' famous green-shag-carpeted den at Graceland in 1976. Ross-Spang was asked to remix seventeen outtakes -- that is, tracks that wound up on the cutting room floor.
In 1976, it was still unusual for musicians -- even big stars -- to record in their own homes. Elvis designed the Jungle Room with both relaxation and recording in mind. RCA parked a mobile studio outside the house and ran cables into his den. A number of Elvis' favorite session players were flown in.
Ross-Spang says that the outtakes allow listeners to hear the mistakes, the rawness, the musical tinkering, but most of all, get a sense of what it was like to be with the King in his own house, relaxed, unguarded and recording some of his last songs before his death in 1977.
